Archive for April, 2012

When you hear the word “intimacy”, who is it that comes to your mind? Is it your spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend? The world seeks its love from a partner and sees the climax of all love going nowhere beyond than in a man and woman relationship. You don’t have to take my word for it, you can see it in the movies, where the ideal concept of love doesn’t seems to help the movie makers and stars themselves, because they are always picking up the pieces from their last relationship or marriage, at least that is what I read in the news papers. If I were to talk of intimacy and love, what enters the head of most people is sex and sensuality. This perversion of something as pure as intimacy and love has its consequences, which show up in the unhelpful relationships these people have and they really cannot do anything about it because they are literally enslaved to their desires.

Genesis 4: 1, 25
Now Adam KNEW Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.”
…
And Adam KNEW his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.”

The word “knew” mentioned above comes from the Hebrew “Yada”, that refers to intimate love. It must be understood in all cases that what we enjoy to satisfaction, happens because God decrees it that way. For example: I enjoy the Snickers candy bar and it’s my favorite but there are times I am not satisfied by it as much as I am most of the time, which is because, even the satisfaction that comes from your favorite action comes from God and maybe he doesn’t always give it to you even when you are doing your favorite thing so that the believer may know that his joyous satisfaction is actually in the Lord and nowhere else.

Well the world is surely blind to this because they don’t see their pleasure coming from God but solely from their own actions and so the world continues to seek pleasure and satisfaction in their actions alone till burnout, and then they ridiculously claim there is no God!

To refrain from heretic doctrine, I would like to tell you that I am in no way implying that sexually orgies await the people of God in paradise. While here on earth ‘sex’ was designed by God to be enjoyed only within the confines of a monogamous marital relationship, in heaven things will be different: in fact the word “which” in Mark 12:25 (below) in the original Greek is “ho he to”, and this has a “genderless” reference.

Mark 12:25
For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels WHICH are in heaven.

The Bible says that God goes beyond just loving, He goes to the extent of being love himself (1John 4:8, 16) and this makes quite a lot of sense because the people who reject God are mostly those who have all kinds of relationship trouble.

Getting back to the topic, let’s read Roman 8: 28-29
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (SECURITY – SAFETY – HOPE —THIS IS WHERE “JOY” IS DEFINED). For those whom he FOREKNEW he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

It ought to be noted here that “foreknew”, used here should not be mistaken as foreknowledge. The Greek word used here for “foreknew” in Romans 8:29 above is “proginosko”, which is foreknowledge when considering a relation to events but when considering a relation between beings, it ought to be seen as “pro-ginosko”, which is literally pure foreordained-intimacy between God and His people. Below are a series of “ginosko” occurrences highlighted in CAPITAL for you to get the message.

Matthew 7:21-23
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’
And then will I declare to them, ‘I never KNEW you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

John 17:3, 25
And this is eternal life, that they KNOW you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
…
O righteous Father, even though the world does not KNOW you, I KNOW you, and these KNOW that you have sent me.

John 10:14-15
I am the good shepherd. I KNOW my own (sheep) and my own (sheep) KNOW me,
just as the Father KNOWS me and I KNOW the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.

John 8:28-32
So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will KNOW that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.
And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.”
As he was saying these things, many believed in him.
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,
and you will KNOW the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

So the highlight of what I am trying to tell you is that, in the life of believer the only thing that really matters is his intimacy with the God who loves him/her, everything else can be arranged but the love between God has His Church can never be arranged, purely because it is already foreordained.

Matthew 6:33
Instead, be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what he requires of you, and he will provide you with all these other things.

Ephesians 5:25-30
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,
because we are members of his body.

From Eph 5:25-30, one can see that the relationship between Christ and His Church is as intimate in love as that of a marital relationship. This intimacy and love between God and His people, referred to as “yada” in Old Testament Hebrew and “ginosoko” in New Testament Greek, is what KNOWING God is really about, which is something that the Church can take pride in.

Jeremiah 9:23-24
Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches,
but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and KNOWS ME, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.”

Have you ever pondered on the word “revelation”? How does it feel when you have an epiphany moment, when something is made known to you i.e. your understanding is enlightened. It is something that makes you pause for the moment to grasp the reality you have encountered.

Have you ever admired a beautiful sunset? Or maybe had your breath taken away by a beautiful landscape? Have you ever looked with smile at a flower or have you dived in tropical waters and been overwhelmed by the beauty and color of the corals and fish? Have you remained silent in a quite countryside and admired the starry sky? These are some of the many heart stopping moments but the reason we are left speechless is because we are admiring the handiwork of Someone. The human subconscious is such that it takes continuous pleasure in what constructively delights its senses and the amazing thing is, on this planet only man can stand in awe of artwork, whatever kind it may be, because that is how man is wired. People are made in such a way that their appreciation last for things that are only worked/made in earnest. This is why when man sees the handmade of God he stands in awe, many times without giving God the full credit because the ability to grasp the revelation of the creation was not granted to all.

Creation as beautiful as it may be is not a complete revelation by itself because it needs to be conjunct with the revelation of God in order to be complete since creation owes its existence to God. The revelation of God was made known in Christ and like the revelation of creation, the revelation made known in Christ was also not granted to all.

John 1:18
No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is the same as God and is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Colossian 2:2-3
2 that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

The unique thing about the revelation that Christ brought is: 100% deliverance done 100% by God. You see there are many who staunchly believe in the existence of God but most of them feel left to themselves to work out their own righteousness before God because God has not touched them with the Salvation worked out completely on the cross.
Hebrews 2:9-10
But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.

After Jesus worked out our salvation on the cross came the sustenance of the Holy Spirit, which was to bring the revelation of Christ into people of all kinds, going down generation after generation, those who have been called by God before the foundation of the world.

If you would like to look deep then the Word (Christ) came into human existence (John1) through the Holy Spirit (Luke 1), who came from the Father (John 14), if you are able to figure this out then you will see that these (Father Son and Spirit) are three distinctive Persons of Deity who are the same God.

John 1:1, 14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
..
The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us. We saw his glory, the glory which he received as the Father’s only Son.

Luke 1:35
And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.

John 14:26
the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Now coming back to the revelation of the Spirit, do you know that the “word of God” known more commonly as the Bible, is a 100% product of the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 6:17
the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

2Peter 1:19-21
19 So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. 20 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, 21 FOR NO PROPHECY WAS EVER MADE BY AN ACT OF HUMAN WILL, BUT MEN MOVED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT SPOKE FROM GOD.

So you see that the Bible is a complete revelation for the believer to know God, allow me to back this statement with scripture.

2Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

1John 2:27
But as for you, Christ has poured out his Spirit on you. As long as his Spirit remains in you, you do not need anyone to teach you. For his Spirit teaches you about EVERYTHING, and what he teaches is true, not false. Obey the Spirit’s teaching, then, and remain in union with Christ.

So you see of the revelation of the Holy Spirit is complete in the Bible which fully (100%) delivers the revelation of Christ to the believer, who also fully receives the revelation of creation from the same Bible. In fact this revelation is so perfect (Psalms 19:7) that Bible ask the believer not to exceed what is written (1 Cor4:6) and those who teach outside the Bible are actually in darkness (Isaiah 8:20).

“Pride” in today’s world is misunderstood. The Bible however does bring clarity into this topic as it does completely (1Cor 4:6) with everything else. Many godly people resent the very word “pride” but frankly zero pride only means zero respect. Let us take a look into a few scriptures that show us the type of pride that God resents.

Psalms 10:4
The wicked do not care about the LORD; in their pride they think that God doesn’t matter.

Isaiah 13:19
Babylonia is the most beautiful kingdom of all; it is the pride of its people. But I, the LORD, will overthrow Babylon as I did Sodom and Gomorrah!

Jeremiah 50:29
“Tell the archers to attack Babylon. Send out everyone who knows how to use the bow and arrow. Surround the city and don’t let anyone escape. Pay it back for all it has done, and treat it as it has treated others, because it acted with pride against me, the Holy One of Israel.

Obadiah 1:2-4
The LORD says to Edom, “I will make you weak; everyone will despise you.
Your pride has deceived you. Your capital is a fortress of solid rock; your home is high in the mountains, and so you say to yourself, ‘Who can ever pull me down?’
Even though you make your home as high as an eagle’s nest, so that it seems to be among the stars, yet I will pull you down

Do you notice here that the pride that God despises is the pride a man takes in himself and the work of his own hands? This was the very reason for which that mighty angel (Satan) was condemned (1Timothy 3:6).

So what do you think? Should the people of God totally do away with pride? I don’t think so because the Bible says so. Tell me, would you have cough syrup anytime other than when you have a cough? If you did, that would be a perversion of the medicine’s purpose to suit you for whatever reason….mostly probably to get high but we see so much of that in the world today. Another instance of such a case can be seen in the beggars of my city, who actually hire doctors to amputate their healthy limbs or have their eyes scooped out, so that their pitiful state will get them more money; which here is clearly a perversion of charity. The funny thing is what the world considers a new trick to pervert the ways of God is not new at all (Jeremiah 4:22). After all how far can a man go when everything he does centers around himself?

Habakkuk 1:7
They spread fear and terror, and in their pride they are a law to themselves.

Coming back to the topic of pride, if you say pride is to be fully rejected in view of God and his Law then I would like to ask you: Is it wrong for a father to be proud of his son (Proverbs 23:24)? Or is it wrong for a spouse to be proud of their faithful partner (Proverbs 12:4)? Are you now beginning to see the right application of pride and not the perversion of it?

There is a difference between being puffed with conceit and being filled with godly pride but here is the punch line: The best use to which a person can put their boasting is taking pride in knowing and exalting God. Allow me support my statement with scripture.

Jeremiah 9:23-24
Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches,
but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.”

Have you be ever been blessed with this kind of righteous pride? Let me tell you then that this blessing is a gift from God this is not the work of your own head and heart. For Jesus says that only His people hear his voice (John 10:27) and only they will confess Him before men (Mat 10:32) i.e. take pride in Him. At the end of it all: man should exalt only God and be humble concerning everything else, including himself.

Isaiah 2:17
Human pride will be ended, and human arrogance will be destroyed. Idols will completely disappear, and the LORD alone will be exalted on that day.

To conclude I would like to quote what the greatest man of God (Luke 7:28): “John the Baptist” said about Jesus Christ in John 3.

John 3:27-30
John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.
You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’
The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete.
He must increase, but I must decrease.”

Hello people, how are you doing today? With Resurrection Sunday (Easter) just around the corner I would like to write something appropriate for the season.

Just as Abraham was tested, Abraham’s faith spoke of things that God would bring forth, which was spiritually inherent in Isaac too.

Genesis 22:7-8 (Old Testament)And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”
Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.

Here is a small study; Isaac’s words: “is the lamb” is translated from the Hebrew “seh, say” which refers to the adjective of the lamb being pushed out. Now not only does Abraham confirm this but he adds more to that information, Abraham says “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering”, the beautiful thing about this is that the word “God”, here refers to a Hebrew plural, which is “El-O-Heem”. “Will provide” comes from the Hebrew “raw-aw’” which literally means “to see”. So Abraham’s words i.e. “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering” can be literally written as “God (plural but referred singular) sees to push out of Himself a lamb for a burnt offering (sacrifice)”. This is exactly what happened on the cross, Jesus bore (sacrifice) the reproach of His Father (push out- Eli Eli, Lama Sabactani) that the descendants of Abraham (Gal 3:7) may be accepted (Col 1:21-22) not for His peoples sake (Ezek 36:22) but for God’s Own Name sake (Isaiah 48:11) because God is Sovereign even in keeping His promises (Psalms 119:123).

Coming now to the book of Hosea, God spoke to His people Israel through the life of this prophet. Hosea’s marriage to unfaithful Gomer was an expression of God’s relationship with His people and then Gomer leaving Hosea for her lovers is reflected in the idolatry of Israel at that time. It so happens, that Gomer is finally left to sell herself as a slave that she may at least have food and shelter, her shame keeps her from going back to Hosea. As much as Gomer was soiled now, Hosea was tarnished but more than the tarnish what lay heavy on Hosea was loving an unfaithful woman. This was how God used Hosea to let His people know His anguish (Jeremiah 4:19; Luke 22:44) over them and their condition.

Hosea 3:1-5
1 And the LORD said to me (Hosea), “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love to take them offering cakes of raisins.”
2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley.
3 And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.”
4 For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods.
5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter days.

You see Gomer was worth nothing when Hosea bought from her from the market and that is in likeness to the Church being purchased by God by His own blood (Acts 20:28). After which God decrees that there will be faithfulness in the relationship between God and His people just like Hosea said to Gomer in Hosea 3:3.

Acts 20:28
Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

It is however important to understand that the term “Church” actually refers to the believing body of people in Jesus and these can be from any country of any language and race. Further if you look into Revelation 7 mentioned below, you will see the fullness of Hosea 3:3-5 of the Old Testament coming to bloom in the New Testament’s Revelation 7. You will see the people’s post-purchase faithfulness in Rev 7:10, 12, 15; you also see the goodness and faithfulness of God towards His people (Hos 3:5) blossoming in Rev 7:16-17.

Revelation 7
9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,
10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,
12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?”
14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15 “Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

To conclude this Good Friday Article, I would like you to remember that your belief in Jesus Christ stands exactly as how God decreed it to be for you at any given time. So if Jesus is your Lord and Savior then may you value His sacrifice and the price He paid for your salvation, may His Spirit then bring you to the fruitfulness of His Sovereign glory.

Romans 8:29-30
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.